Used 2005 Mazda 3 Sedan Consumer Reviews
Love our SP 2.3 Sedan
Bought this car 5 weeks ago and have 2500+ miles on it already - lots of highway driving. What a great car!! Love the carbon gray mica with the black leather (don't see any like it) and this one is loaded with most everything except NAV. Last tank was 29.2 MPG. Very fun to drive - handles like a dream. Acceleration was a pleasant surprise. Added another SP 2.3 badge to the trunk lid - makes it look that much better. Bose is awesome. The rain-sensing wipers work great. The car rides and handles much better than the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic (yuk) we test drove.
Been great so far!
I bought it used with 46,000. It now has 58,000 and I have had no problems with it what so ever. Gas mileage has been pretty good although the car is small and I would expect it to get better. But other than that it has been golden. No mechanical problems. Turns on a dime. Rides beautifully on the highway. Put good tires on it if you haven't already. I had the Eagle RS-A and as soon as I switched them out the car was much quieter and rode a lot smoother. A/C can be a little weak. But it seems to do fine if you turn it up another notch. All around a very good car. I am very happy with it and I don't expect that to change
- SP23 Special Edition SedanMSRP: $6,990218 mi away
BEST car in class
Easily best car for the money (reliability to be seen). The car is very quick with excellent handling with 205/55R16 tires. I opted for the 2.0 for the mileage (28 MPG city driving on 1700 miles). Very nice and roomy interior. I will echo the complaints about the weak A/C, and the remote trunk opening, but they are not show stoppers. Seats are a little hard and the doors do not auto-lock when the car is started.
How fast am I driving?
The Mazda3 is fun to drive and gets good mileage. I bought it fully loaded with automatic, ABS, and side air bags. I like the car's handling, feel for the road, and the manual mode on the automatic transmission. On the other hand, a nearly fatal flaw is that the speedometer and other gauges are so far recessed into the instrument panel and unlit that they're extremely difficult and tiresome to read on sunny days within 3 hours of sunrise/set or driving in and out of shade. I have to stare at the instrument panel for a second or two to let my eyes adjust to the darkness before I know how fast I'm going. The gauges are fine on cloudy days and fantastic at night.
Fun, Hot, Reliable, Good buy!
I love this car to death. It's such a great buy for what what you get. It's stylish and fun to drive. I've never had one problem with it. The only complaints are that the trunk doesn't open with the remote. The AC/heater is a little weak too. But I live in San Diego so this is not really a big problem for me.